Equity Strategy/Emerging EMEA Markets

Roland Nash & team Renaissance

second team Mark Robinson & team UniCredit

third team Alexander Redman Credit Suisse

Roland Nash steers the RenCap squad to a third consecutive first-place finish. Nash, 37, who also leads the top-ranked teams in Russia and Ukraine, and his Moscow-based troupe of 25 told investors in mid-December 2008 that the Russian Trading System index, then at 687.94 and down 70 percent year to date, would more than double in 2009 as portfolio managers realized the rout had created a buying opportunity. The RTS index skyrocketed 110 percent through the end of last year, reaching 1,444.61 by late December and outpacing MSCI’s emerging EMEA index by 66.9 percentage points. “Great — simply great,” is how one money manager describes the RenCap team.

The London- and Moscow-based UniCredit quintet under Mark Robinson rises one notch to second. Last March the analysts published a report citing ten factors that led to a bullish call on Europe’s emerging markets. Through January, MSCI’s emerging Europe index catapulted 103.9 percent.

Rising from runner-up to third place is London-based Credit Suisse analyst Alexander Redman, who works solo. In October, with emerging EMEA equities up 61.6 percent from their March lows, Redman told clients to prepare for a dip. The MSCI emerging EMEA index slid 7.1 percent through early November before starting to regain lost ground, and by late January had advanced only 1.1 percent since Redman’s call.